Magic Johnson sat in his car for an hour before meeting LeBron James to discuss his free agency in order to avoid tampering issues

Kevork Djansezian/GettyMagic Johnson has run into issues with tampering rules with the NBA before, but took careful precaution to ensure that his meeting with LeBron James was on the up and up.

Magic Johnson played a key role in convincing LeBron James to join the Los Angeles Lakers this offseason.

While it was already known that Magic met with LeBron at his home the minute free agency opened up, Johnson recently revealed that he had waited in the driveway for an hour before approaching the door.

Johnson’s caution was an effort to avoid any fines related to tampering, as James was still technically under contract until 9:01 p.m. Pacific time.

According to Mike Bresnahan of Spectrum SportsNet, Johnson arrived at James’ house an hour early for their meeting, but since LeBron technically wasn’t a free agent until 9:01 p.m. Pacific time, Johnson was left to wait out the final minutes of James’ contract with the Cavaliers in his car.

Magic Johnson told @SpectrumSN he arrived an hour early for his 9:01 pm meeting with LeBron on June 30 in Los Angeles.

“I was going to sit outside for an hour until it was my time to go up to his home,” Johnson said.

With the most significant potential free agent signing in the recent history of the franchise at stake, Johnson wanted to do everything in his power to make sure that he landed LeBron by the book. The result was Johnson arriving an hour early to beat Los Angeles traffic, and then waiting an hour before knocking on the door.

The move was worth the wait – LeBron is heading to the Lakers in a four-year, $US153.3 million deal.